In beverage dispensing technology, it is imperative for both sanitary and regulatory reasons to maintain consistent, stable and low temperatures in many products while they are being dispensed. Cooling has been shown to slow bacterial growth, which is important for beverages which must be kept cold at all times so as to maintain sanitary conditions and assist maintenance of sanitary conditions for the beverage, in keeping with food safety codes. The importance of this can be understood in the following terms: if a product cannot be maintained at the proper temperature in conformity with regulations on health and safety, then the product simply cannot be dispensed. Thus the entire shape of industries such as drinking, food management and entertainment can be altered by the practical limits of temperature control. Different products have different regulatory standards, for example, NSF 18 is applicable to general beverage technology, while NSF 20 is applicable to bulk milk dispensing.
A typical prior art beverage dispensing tower is shown in FIGS. 10A, 10B and 10C, a tap type which might be manufactured by Perlick or any other manufacturer for many years. (For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,787 issued Dec. 9, 1987 to Cleleand et al.) The tower 102 has a top 104 and a tap 106 (106, 106A, 106B). Tap 106 projects out from the front of the tower top 104, on shank 116. A shank assembly 116 is embedded inside of a cold block 120. Tap handle 114 includes an internal faucet lever that is attached to an internal valve stem having at least two positions (forward/open and backward/closed), and thus allows beverages to be dispensed from orifice 112, due to the presence of the internal valve. Note that the valve usually (in most designs) cuts off flow at 108, which is the rear of the faucet, and the location of the valve seat, and so some of the beverage which is held within the system is inside the tap 106 and will essentially drain out after the tap is closed. This is important as there is a “cold block” 120 within the tower (102/104). The cold block keeps the beverage within the tower cold as the beverage stops at the valve seat at the intersection of 110 and 120. (The tap 106, however, essentially only receives a minimum of cooling by conduction from cold block 120 through the shank assembly 116.)
Thus standard designs do not hold beverage within the faucet body 106: there is beverage at 108 and the point of dispense is functionally at 108. To reiterate, the significant factor here is the ability to meet regulatory standards: business and other considerations must conform to this over-riding issue.
In other designs such as the Perlick “sanitary faucet” 106A or stout faucets such as 106B, the valve is reversed and beverage remains within the faucet, attempting to rely upon the conduction from the cold block to keep the external faucet cold.
The prior art “cold block” as used for many decades is a conductive block with channels running through it. The channels carry glycol coolant, which is kept separated from one or more product channels carrying the beverage. The channels of glycol can absorb large amounts of heat and carry it away to a heat exchanger such as a radiator located at a remote location. The aluminum or Kirksite composite (a zinc alloy typically having a modest amount of aluminum and copper) cold block has excellent heat transmission properties, heat rejected by the beverage as it passes through the cold block can easily enter the cold block and then be rejected into the glycol and away. If the valve location 108 is situated projecting near the cold block 120 (as some products by Perlick and others have had for 50 years or more) then the traditional arrangement keeps the beverage cold right to the point of dispense at valve part 108. The glycol channels in the prior art arrangements may run throughout cold block 120 in any of a wide range of ways, for example, the glycol channels may run right to the point of dispense at valve part 110 (except of course Perlick sanitary faucets, stout faucets and the like).
Other systems teach using coolant lines to cool the feed lines running up to the valves but with no true cold block (as in soft drink fountain systems).
Various types of systems have been proposed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,188,751 and 7,140,514 issued Mar. 13, 2008 and Nov. 28, 2006 to Van Der Klaauw et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,360,556 issued Mar. 26, 2002 to Gagliano, U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,652 issued May 29, 2001 to Nelson, U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,825 issued Jul. 23, 1996 to Ward, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,445 issued Jun. 13, 1978 to Bevan, U.S. Pat. No. 2,450,315 issued Sep. 29, 1948 to Vetrano, U.S. Pat. No. 2,286,205 issued Jun. 16, 1942 issued to Grubb, U.S. Pat. No. 2,259,852 issued Oct. 21, 1941 to Hall show some typical examples of the prior art in the field.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,272,951 issued Sep. 25, 2007 to Kyees teaches that the cooling lines in a cold block may pass about the tap shank and/or socket fittings (not the tap heads themselves). The tap heads still project from the tower, as may be seen in FIG. 14b of that reference.
Note that U.S. Pat. No. 5,694,787 issued Dec. 9, 1987 to Cleleand et al teaches a beer chilling tower of a type very similar to that previously discussed in reference to Prior Art FIGS. 10a, 10b, 10c of the present application. This tap is a pre-mix tap, that is, one in which any beverage mixing is carried out prior to the tap body itself. For comparison, in FIG. 5 of the Cleleand references it may be seen that only a rear end of the tap (“threaded nipple or stem”, Cleleand, col. 7, line 17) is embedded within the tower, and the Patent Office has previously stated in the parent application that the Cleleand reference is only partially embedded. In particular, the actual valve body having the valve stem therein projects from the cold block. This significant structural difference is the reason that the Cleleand reference cannot be used for dispensing dairy products or the like.
It may also be seen that the tap is not fused or integrated with the cold block: the threaded nature of parts V and P (“shank”) of that reference allow the removal of the entire tap.
Finally, it will be appreciated that the Cleleand reference teaches a tap on the order of either a “Perlick-style” tap or else a general-style tap, (“general” is not a make or tradename, just an indication that the diagrammed tap is general in nature) but does not teach a Stout tap or the like.
Testing by the applicant of systems similar to the general-style beer tap system (such as PRIOR ART FIG. 13, that is, pre-mix beer taps with a cold block extending only to the the stem of the valve but not encircling the actual valve itself revealed that such taps could NOT pass the NSF 20 tests carried out by the National Sanitation Facility and thus could not be used for dairy products. The reason for this was that the milk and beverage held inside of the valve stem portion of the tap (the majority of the tap which projects out from the cold block but carries within it some beverage) would warm quite quickly, even reaching temperatures exceeding 70 degrees F. despite the fact that the NSF 20 test requires a four hour period of maintaining temperatures below 41 degrees F.
In addition, the applicant has found that it is physically impossible to embed an entire faucet body of the “Perlick” or general type into a horizontal cold block without blocking the operation of the valve, the tap, the faucet or other parts. Not only would it not be serviceable, it would not even be possible to get beer to flow out if the entire tap were embedded.
Another reference, but of less interest, is U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,259 issued Feb. 23, 1999 to Spillman, which deals with “post-mix” style taps in which the mixing is carried out at a soda cone or similar point. The Spillman reference teaches two items, one of which is hand-held technology (a gun shaped unit) which is presumably impossible to combine with a large cold block.
However, FIG. 7 of the Spillman reference teaches a hollow tower of the soda fountain type seen in fast food restaurants, made of bent sheet metal. This hollow tower has within it a series of coolant lines which are wrapped around the beverage lines and then for a short run which does not include the solenoids, it has a cold block.
It is also worth noting that the electrical solenoid valves of the soda fountain are disposed lower down in the hollow tower, far below the actual cold block, that is the solenoid valves of the Spillman reference are also not completely encircled by the cold block.
This last structural difference is important due to the siphoning effect in which the beverage within the upper part of the hollow soda tower returns down the lines to the solenoid and thus leaves the cold block. In effect, the cold block cools empty lines and the beverage which is below the cold block is insulated by nothing but thin sheet metal of the sides of the hollow tower.
Thus, it is not generally known to actually place the traditional stout tap into the cold block itself, then run coolant lines all the way around the tap while staying entirely within the cold block. It is further not generally known to actually place a wide range of beverage taps into a cold block having coolant lines running all the way around tap within a temperature control block. It is further not generally known to actually place a portion control mechanism within a temperature control block.
Significantly, it is NOT known to provide a coolant chamber around the tap mechanism and within a temperature control block, thus providing highly stable temperatures right to very verge of dispensing of beverages such as milk, coffee, beer, or the like.
It would be desirable to provide a device which allows beverages to be maintained at a desirable determined temperature including when the beverage is within the actual tap itself, by placing the taps within the cold block.